Friday, 10 February 2017

The Heat(ing) Is On...

...at least for now.After a chilly week in my flat, early morning trips to my parents' place so that I could have a hot shower before work, and evenings spent either eating out with friends (in nice, well-heated restaurants) or wrapped up in a super-warm blanket on my settee, steaming tea mug in hand, today at around lunch time our heating and hot water was working again.But......it won't last.The man doing the repairs said he discovered more problems with our boiler as he went along. Somehow, water has entered the main circuit board, and even someone like me who does not really know anything about boilers understands that water and electricity are not best friends.He said the board was still working, but faultily so, and could fail anytime again. He could replace it, but said it was very likely that he'd find even more parts that got wet when they shouldn't have, and would possibly need replacing. All in all, we could be in for about half the price of an entirely new boiler.Now it is up to us to decide whether we want the small or the big solution. Both have their pros and cons, and we will discuss it on Monday with my upstairs neighbours' son who speaks German as good as I do. Until then, I feel a little bit on edge as I don't know how long this lovely warmth and the option to have a hot shower will last.Good job that I'm going to travel to O.K.'s tomorrow morning! Let's hope I won't return to a chilly flat again on Sunday night.And isn't it odd that the boiler at my parents' house broke yesterday early afternoon, too? Well, maybe not that odd, considering that boilers are probably breaking left, right and centre these days, as they do in winter.

19 comments:

I'm really feeling for you with boilers breaking left and right - hopefully both your own, and now your parents' boiler, will be able to be repaired/replaced at a reasonable price. . . . . . and soon if you have snow again. The weather is chilly no doubt!

Water and Electricity are not best friends... Sounds like a children's story. Light and Electricity are the best of chums but Electricity is not too keen on Gas. They all live together in a gingerbread house in Ludwigsburg, looked after by a strict nanny called Mistress Meike...

It can be awkward tryign to reach agreement with someone else about something as vital as heating and hot water. But I usually think it's best to go for the big repair as long as you can get someone competent to do it... an issue, actually, which can cause such a problem here in Britain where craft training is terrible. Bad luck that your parents' boiler is also giving problems but I hope that they will be able to get it fixed while you are away.

I doubt the boiler at my parents' house (12 flats) will be fixed so quickly. They have a proper, formal house administration handling such issues, and they are to look at offers from three different companies before awarding someone the contract.Here at my much smaller house, we do not have a formal administrator. So far over the past 13 years, we have always managed to sort things out between the two (or three) of us.

Well, I'm glad the repair man got it working for a while anyway. Hope it lasts until you can get the bigger job done, whichever way you decide to go. I'm reminded of the advantages of living in a rented council flat... Like not having to worry about extra costs for repairs like that. (Well - not in one big chunk anyway. Of course somewhere along the line we're all paying for it...)

It seems to be fine for now, but I know we must not let ourselves think we can make do without a proper repair.I agree that, under these circumstances, it is an advantage to live in a rented flat when you have good administration. Still, I am very glad that I took the step of going from renting to owning back in 2003.

Sorry to hear all these trials...Since heat is so important, I hope your parents boiler will also be fixed soon, despite the larger more formal "bureaucracy". Perhaps your parents can now come to your flat for warmth and showers!